Dinner with Friends
by Linge
Summary: This story takes place some time after the conclusion of a previous story of mine, "Caroline and the Impossible Decision", but if you haven't read it, that's okay. All you really need to know is that (after much drama) Caroline and Richard are back together after 17 years apart, and Caroline has left Randy. They are about to have dinner with Annie and Del, who are now married.


This story takes place some time after the conclusion of "Caroline and the Impossible Decision". If you haven't read it, that's okay. The only important thing to know is that Caroline and Richard are now back together after 17 years apart. Caroline left Randy, and it was all rather dramatic, lol. Anyway, the following story is about the first time they have dinner with Annie and Del (who are married, obviously) after they got back together.

* * *

When they arrived at Remo's, Richard had to stop outside for a minute to take it all in. So many memories came rushing back to him.

"God, this place… it was such a big part of our lives back then, wasn't it? We spent so much time here."

"I know," she said softly.

"The first time I ever kissed you was in there," he mused.

"Oh yeah! That was so funny. The look on Del's face was priceless," she giggled.

"I remember how surprised you were," he continued, chuckling slightly at the memory. "I surprised myself, too."

"I could tell," she grinned.

"There was also the second time I kissed you… but that one wasn't spur of the moment. It was very much what I intended to do if you walked through that door." He smiled sadly.

She grabbed his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You know, I was here the first time I ever considered the possibility of you and I as a couple."

"Really?"

She chuckled. "Yeah. It was something Annie said… I think she told me that you had "a thing" for me."

"She was right," he said with a wry smile. "Well, almost, anyway. I didn't have a _thing_ for you, I was _in love_ with you."

Caroline leaned into him, putting her head on his shoulder. "If I remember it correctly, Remo said that I was the cream in your cannoli."

He chuckled loudly at that. "Yeah, that sounds like something Remo would say."

"I was trying to decide what to do about Del's proposal at the time," she continued. "What they said got under my skin, so I went straight to your apartment. Boy, was that bad timing! I got there to find a chain-smoking woman wrapped in a sheet, stuck in your closet. I walked away muttering to myself about how stupid I was, cursing Annie and Remo for putting ideas into my head."

"Oh yeah, Maddie. That was such a mistake. She told me to go after you, though. So I did, but I chickened out, and just gave you my umbrella instead."

"We messed up so much," she said, laughing despite herself. "Actually, I still have no idea how you ended up in bed with that woman. Who was she?"

"Oh, that's embarrassing," he replied, closing his eyes for a second. "She worked for an employment agency I visited that afternoon."

"Employment agency?" Caroline inquired.

"I wanted to look for a new job. Being stupidly in love with your boss is exhausting."

She smirked. "Yeah. Stupid."

Their trip down memory lane was interrupted just then.

"Hey, there they are!"

Caroline and Richard looked up to find that Annie and Del were rapidly approaching them. Caroline let go of Richard's hand and walked towards them.

"Hey, Annie!" she exclaimed, giving her best friend a quick hug, before moving on to greet Del with a quick embrace as well. For Richard, the whole scene was surreal. He knew that he used to be very familiar with these people, but so much had changed. He'd missed out on everything.

"Oh my god, it lives and breathes," Anne quipped, finally acknowledging his presence.

"Hello, Annie," he said dryly.

"Oh, come on, Richie," she chuckled, before wrapping her arms around him. "It's good to see you."

"Yeah, whatever," he said as she pulled away, but the smile on his face betrayed him.

"Hey, man!" Del said cheerfully, grabbing his hand and shaking it firmly.

"Hello," Richard replied, suddenly feeling awkward, but he relaxed slightly when he felt Caroline latching onto his arm, giving him a supportive nudge. She was an expert at reading his body language.

"So, are we going inside, or what?" Annie said impatiently. _Good old Annie._

"Yeah, let's go sit down," Caroline grinned.

They walked through the door, and were immediately greeted by none other than Remo himself.

"Ah, Carolina! So good to see you!"

"Hi, Remo," she smiled. "How are you?"

"Well, my son, the _idiot_, has managed to mess up the wine orders, again. But other than that, I can't complain."

Caroline chuckled. "Good to hear."

"Oh my goodness!" Remo exclaimed. "Ricardo! Is that really you?"

"Actually, no. I'm his evil twin brother," Richard replied.

"I see you haven't lost that wonderful sense of humour," Remo joked. He then turned back to Caroline. "Carolina?" he inquired, arching an eyebrow.

Caroline smiled shyly. "What?"

"Signor Randy will not be joining us?"

She looked nervously in Richard's direction, and she could see that he'd tensed up. She gave him a reassuring smile, and his face softened at that.

"Things have changed since I last saw you," Caroline began, biting her lower lip. She held her hand out, signalling for Richard to join her. He took the outstretched hand, and stepped up to stand next to her. "You see, Richard's back."

Remo looked confused for a moment, and glanced over in the direction of Annie and Del.

"Is this true? It's not some sort of, eh… practical joke?"

Annie smirked. "I'm afraid it's true."

It seemed to take a few seconds for the news to sink in, but eventually his face erupted into a wide grin. "How wonderful!" he exclaimed. "I'm so happy for you two."

He motioned for his son to come over. "This calls for a celebration! Matteo, go grab a bottle of our finest champagne." He seemed to consider this for a second. "And, eh, five glasses," he grinned. "Come on, let's sit down."

They all followed him to their table, and once they were seated he was quick to bring them their menus. A minute later, his son returned with the champagne, and he popped open the bottle, after which he proceeded to pour the celebratory liquid into their glasses.

"A toast!" he announced. "To Carolina and Ricardo: sincere amore, no?" He winked, and Caroline beamed.

"Hear, hear!" Del called out, and they all raised their glasses. Caroline and Richard shared a look of affection, and Richard mouthed, "I love you," causing her stomach to flutter. "Me too," she mouthed in return.

* * *

"So Richie, I hear you're a big shot artist now," Annie quipped, after they'd finished placing their orders.

He rolled his eyes. "I guess you could say that."

"Hey, I'm happy for you, man," Del said, joining in.

"Thanks." He smiled. Del was alright, he found himself thinking. He'd always given the other man a hard time, but he wasn't so bad. Of course Richard had hated it when he was dating Caroline, but that hadn't been Del's fault. Also, he'd have to be a special kind of saint to have stayed married to Annie this long!

"So how did you end up getting stuck with this one, anyway?" Richard asked, nodding his head in Annie's direction.

"Hey!" Annie shot him a dirty look.

"It's a valid question," Richard remarked dryly.

"Come on, guys," Caroline interjected. "Richard, give Del some credit. He's never been married this long before," she continued, with a playful smirk.

Del crossed his arms. "Well, look who's talking."

"Oh, shut up, I've only been married once," Caroline retorted, smiling wryly.

"So actually," Annie declared, "I am the only one at this table who's never gone through a divorce."

"_Hey!_" Caroline exclaimed. "I haven't gone through a divorce. _Yet_."

Annie chuckled. "Oh, shush, you're about to. My point is: I am the most respectable person who is sitting at this table," she said triumphantly.

"Oh my god, she's actually right," Richard said, horrified by this notion.

"Is this when I suggest that we start counting the amount of people we've slept with?" Del asked indignantly.

"Del," Caroline chuckled, "that wouldn't really end favourably for you."

"It would be more favourable for me than for her," he pouted, pointing in Annie's direction.

Annie turned to shoot him a disapproving look. "Do you want to add a third divorce to your record?"

"Really, all of you. If we look at the number of people we've slept with, I think it's fairly obvious who the more respectable person is," Caroline said matter-of-factly.

"What makes you so sure about that?" Richard challenged.

"I've been married for over sixteen years, while you have been running around Europe completely unattached. Am I wrong?" Caroline raised her eyebrows questioningly.

Richard sighed. "No."

"There you go," she concluded with a grin. Richard rolled his eyes at her.

"Anyway, it's all irrelevant," Annie declared. "I have no regrets."

"Me neither," Del concurred. "I don't care how many people you've slept with, darling."

"Aw, you are so sweet," Annie chirped. "But in all seriousness," she continued, "the past is in the past, and we were just enjoying our lives!"

"True," Caroline agreed. "No harm done!"

"Here you are," Remo interrupted cheerfully, having come over to their table with wine and breadsticks. "I see everyone's still in one piece," he noted, arching his eyebrow as his eyes darted between Richard and Annie.

Caroline laughed. "Yes, Remo, everyone's still friends."

"I wouldn't use the word "friends"," Richard muttered dryly, which earned him a playful slap on his arm.

"Glad to hear it," Remo said humorously. "Your food will be out in 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, don't eat _each other_."

* * *

"So you guys really had no idea that you were going to work together until you showed up at her office?" Del asked.

Richard looked up from his plate of food. "We didn't, no. For some reason unknown to man, they only told me where to go and her first name. I have to admit, though, that when they told me I was going to work with someone named Caroline, I almost told them I'd changed my mind about the whole thing."

"Really?" Caroline asked, slightly surprised. Richard turned to face her.

"Yeah. In fact, I think that's why I didn't ask for a surname. I didn't want to know, in case it would make me chicken out. I also figured it was unlikely, given the fact that this is a big city with a lot of people. Besides, for all I knew you could have changed your surname when you got married. It would have surprised me, because you're an artist and it didn't seem like something you would have done, but at the end of the day that was only what I _thought_. So I decided to just show up at the address they had given me, and take it from there."

She smiled. "Well, I'm glad you did."

"Me too," he said, smiling back.

"Okay, I'm going to gag in a minute," Annie whined, rolling her eyes. "So Richie, since when do you illustrate children's books, anyway? Isn't that like, beneath you or something?"

"You know, Annie, I used to think spending time with _you_ was beneath me as well, but here we are," Richard quipped sarcastically.

"Oh, bite me," Annie shot back.

"I would, but it doesn't sound very sanitary," he replied dryly.

Caroline couldn't help but laugh. "Hey kids, be nice."

"You do realise that hell will freeze over before these two idiots get along, right?" Del interjected.

"I know," Caroline sighed, a wry smile creeping onto her face. "I just wish they could at least be civilised," she joked.

"Hey, I can be civilised!" Richard protested. "So Annie, what have you been doing with your life since you stopped waving your tail in people's faces?"

Annie scoffed. "I will have you know that I was nominated for a Drama Desk award three years ago."

"Am I supposed to know what that is?"

"Annie was the female lead in the Broadway revival of _Carousel_," Caroline said with a certain amount of pride.

"I guess they use the term "female" loosely in your business," he muttered sarcastically.

"Put a sock in it, Richie!"

"As long as it isn't yours."

"It's like no time has passed," Caroline quipped, making Del laugh in agreement while Annie and Richard were still busy making faces at each other.

Shrugging, she turned her attention to Del instead.

"So how are things? How's business?"

"Same old, really. I signed a new cartoonist the other day, actually."

"Oh, which one?" Caroline inquired curiously.

"You know that guy who draws the strip about the alcoholic grandmother?"

Caroline laughed. "Yeah, I love that one!"

"Me too!" Del said excitedly. "Did you see the one where she's attempting to clear stuff out of her cupboards?" He chuckled.

"I did! That was so funny. He's a genius, that guy." She paused for a second. "You know, sometimes I miss doing the daily strip. There was a certain level of excitement to it, having to meet that deadline every evening, wondering where my next idea was going to come from. With the books, I have so much more time to prepare. It's not the same."

"Do you regret giving it up?" Del asked.

She grimaced slightly. "I guess not," she sighed. "But every now and then I do get nostalgic when I'm reading the daily strips in the paper."

"Sometimes you just want to go back in time and relive it all, don't you?"

Caroline nodded, smiling thoughtfully.

"Hey, what are you two talking about?" Annie interrupted.

"Just the good, old days," Caroline replied wistfully.

"I'll drink to that," Annie said, emptying her glass.


End file.
